Mt Olympus Announces Looping Wooden Coaster Hades 360

It’s starting to look like looping wooden roller coasters are falling from the sky these days. Or should I say coming out of the woodwork? Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. Today, Mt. Olympus (Wisconsin Dells, WI) announced that they’ll be giving their Gravity Group-designed woodie, Hades an interesting overhaul. Next year it will boast a loop and a new over-banked turn as it will be re-born as Hades 360. Queue the marketing superlatives!

With its unique construction, Hades 360 will have:
• The World’s First completely upside down roll on an all wooden coaster
• The World’s longest underground track measuring 800 feet underground
• A 90 degree turn underground in complete darkness
• A 135 degree over-banked turn
• A staggering drop of 140 feet with an amazing drop angle of 65 degrees
• Total length of 4,725 feet
• A 160 foot incline to the top drop
• A blazing top speed of 70 mph

Hades 360 – The World’s First All-Wooden Looping Roller Coaster

Puffery aside, I have to say that Mt. Olympus really has something to brag about. Technically, Hades 360 will not be the World’s first all-wooden looping roller coaster. Remember Loop-the-Loop at Coney Island, the ride I featured this year on National Roller Coaster Day? But when it comes to “modern looping roller coasters” a term used to describe successful steel loopers born in 1970’s, I can’t think of another all wooden looping roller coaster in the past 40 years. We had Kings Island’s Son of Beast, but it’s loop was made of steel. So, even from an enthusiast stand point and during a year when we’ll have a few other wood or mostly wooden coasters with loops (Iron Rattler and Outlaw Run), Hades 360 and it’s notable wooden loop are definitely worthy of some hype.

Since the track will be all wood unlike the Rocky Mountain Coasters, I’m okay with calling Hades all-wood even though the supports are metal. These wooden coaster designers aren’t make it easy for us are they? Here’s a promo video of Hades 360 at Mt. Olympus:

Another Exciting Project from Gravity Group

Aside from the concept of a wooden looping coaster, I’m a big fan of Gravity Group’s roller coasters including Hades. There’s a lot to love in the ride’s layout. I won’t go into detail here, but I was blown away by the whole package that included the action-packed pre-lift hill sequence, a great first drop, and the pitch black insanity of the World’s longest tunnel.

To be fair, I haven’t ridden it since 2006 and from the comments on my review post, it sounds like it’s gotten pretty rough. If there’s some rehab involved in the project and Gravity Group’s Timberliner trains deliver on their potential, then Hades 360 could be quite a roller coaster.

Make Hades a Truly World-Class Attraction

While the park is transitioning Hades to Hades 360, I’d love to see them step up the theming a bit in the station and give that signature ride some love. From the uninterested ride ops who were chilling on the floor of the station as the train raced in, to the spareness of the station itself it just felt like Hades was missing something. Maybe a park should have their best crew on their biggest attraction. I’ve been to smaller parks that provided more enthusiasm from their ride ops for their top ride. This might be a bit of a nitpick and maybe I caught the park on an off-day, but it definitely stuck with me.

Also, it’d be nice if they could give the ride a second train, but I’m not sure if that’s in the cards. This will be an interesting project to watch. 2013 is really shaping up to be quite an exciting year for roller coasters.

Hades 360 will NOT be the first all-wooden roller coaster with an inversion. Whether they actually worked or not, history proves that there have been many versions of all-wooden roller coasters with loops such as the "Loop the Loop" at Coney Island and the infamous "Flip Flap" (among several others). None of them work very well, but the fact of the matter is they were the first all-wooden coasters with inversions and Hades 360 will NOT be the very first. Maybe it will end up being the first all-wooden roller coaster that actually worked well, but it is not the first of its kind. So please get your facts straight!

My facts are straight. Sorry if the subheading confused you, but I'm well aware that it's not the "World's First …". Please try and actually read the posts here and don't just skim them. Maybe I should have bolded the section where I mention Loop the Loop to prevent the skimmers from 'correcting me'.

Very excited for this, maybe the rise again of woodies will convince a UK park to splash out on one, these new woodies with inversions and steep drops look top class and hopefully one will make its way over to Europe soon.

**Sorry about the wall of text that follows this** I think that this a train wreck waiting to happen, first of all, it should be a crime to turn a traditional (Hades was mostly traditional aside from the 90 degree banking at the time) to a mutant without an RMC Iron Horse treatment, but that's completely different, it's a steel coaster. With how poorly Mount Olympus is managed (worst park management IMHO), this could possibly be the death of the Gravity Group AND Mount Olympus themselves, we know how Son of Beast ended, with the loop removed and ending up in a pile of twisted wood and metal, all it would take is one horrific accident like something from a Final Destination movie, and they’re both dead, also claiming my current #1 coaster in the process. And what'll happen to the old train? we know how parks like to throw them on other rides and the only one that would make any sense in their broken management would be Cyclops, my current #1, and that would DESTROY Cyclops, which is made by the buzzbars on it's train, and I'm not a fan of Timberliners at al since they don't look like they belong on a wooden coaster because I think that they're hideous.

**Continued** But what I would have done, give Zeus the patented RMC Iron Horse treatment and the name Zeus's Revenge first, where it would turn around it would overbank before diving into a tunnel and barreling up into a barrel roll (becoming an L shaped out-and-back IH), before turning into a twisted helix before plunging towards the small pond and rejoining the new steel tracked back section and blasting into the brand new lower station, and the drop would become a twisted drop, the trains would be themed to look like highly- modified PTC trains with lightning bolts all over them, Now onto Hades, Hades’ finish would be lowered to accommodate a transfer track and a second train with a complete re-tracking and some topper track at certain parts, with the possibility of those GCI Millennium Flyer trains, if not, I'd add an extra car and a second train, with theming added to the station,

**Continued (Again)** Cyclops; a proactive re-tracking and some topper track installed at the bottom of the infamous/awesome drop, a possible 6th car, and a new finish, ranging from a possible partial underground helix to a hill climbing helix, giving a stronger finish to the ride but would stay 1 train operation since it cycles rather quickly despite using only 1 train, Other things that I'd do are build a Mack water Coaster where Dive to Atlantis once sat, the indoor theme park leveled with the coaster sold off somewhere else, and replaced by a GCI woodie name Hercules with a water slide complex named after the Hydra intertwined with it, it would be like Hades (wooden Hybrid) with a 120' drop into an underwater tunnel after a 100' lift hill, and I'd also add a Gearslaughter spinning coaster (to replace Opa), and a possible Euro-Fighter as well, and a wide assortment of flat ride and the Alabama Adventure Boomerang with the new Velkoma trains, plus better staff, making Mount Olympus a must visit destination Sorry about the length of my comment, there’s just a lot that I’d do,

First of all, I'd agree Cyclops was my favorite ride at Mt. Olympus. However like all the rides there, it has a low rider capacity. All of their rides can only ride 1 car at a time and have no holding area for incoming trains. When I rode Hades, I waited about 45 minutes because they can only run one train at a time on a 2 minute (or more) ride. Then when I got on, I was extremely disappointed with the roughness. I would rehab the coasters there that have potential, (especially rides like Zeus and Cyclops, with its amazing valley diving ending).

(changes) With the progress on this mistake, there have been changes, The Velkoma boomerang from AA, scrapped in favor for an Intamin Half-Pipe named Poseidon’s Surf (would only be the 3rd in US and 8th in the world) with themed station and have a singe rider line (after my experience at NickU, it’s a must with one of these), and themed cars (of course), would be built where boomerang would have been, Zeus’s Revenge changed to Wrath of Zeus (everything else would stay the same) Hades 360 renamed back to Hades and overbank removed for 90 degree bank, complete re-tracking and end lowered would stay, with topper traack added in inversion for safety reasons, Timberliners kept until Rocky Mountain trains are tested to see if they work, if not keep Timberliners (much to my displeasure), crosbar lowered if possible, Euro-Fighter now a will, but the design/concept is torn between two different design ideas; the first is a ‘standard’ Eeuro-Fighter with 100 degree drop (this would stay the same), BUT would drop into an underwater tunnel (this one would be called Poseidon’s Plunge), and the layout would be fast paced and twisted (somewhere between 4-6 inverts), trains would have the new lap bars, The other idea is a themed experience like SAW and Mystery Mine called Fall of Atlantis, the trains would be the same here, but there’d be a launch and an indoor section with special effects, themed after, of course, the fall of Atlantis, there’d be a barrel roll inside and dark (like SAW), and have somewhere between 5-8 inverts WITH possibly the Smiler’s fun house thing, used for rocking during the indoor sequence (like waves rocking a boat), Rock Bottom Plunge confirmed this for me, taking the #3 spot BTW B&M Mega named Apollo’s Flight; now this might not happen, but if it would, or likely Golaith (SFoG) or Raging Bull wins me over somehow (if I ever get out to those parks this summer that is), it would feature the standard (non V) B&M hyper trains and be anywhere from 150-200+ ft tall and run along the path towards the waterpark (which I’d run a tire tram system between BTW since the walk is BRUTAL) and overbank at the turnaround and possibly pull a Thunder Dolphin (running along the rooftops of the stands along the way if possible, all depends on structural integrity), but not meander there with a possible dive into one of the buildings, with either a possible low-level figure-8 finish with water fountains or a helix finish with similar water effects, Possibly a large family steel coaster that would go through the support structures of the 3 woodies and have a close fly-over with the new river rapids ride, but this ride would be very unlikely, but not completely out of the question, you can thank Pepsi Orange Streak for that, Though the land for all of this wouldn’t be there right away, I’d see if I didn’t own the land to the far back, I’d see if I could make out a deal so that the Euro-Fighter, and the stations for Apollo’s Flight, River Stix (the rapids ride), and Atlantis Plunge (the MACK watercoaster) could fit there with some flat rides there as well, which the park lacks BIG time, But overall, if anyone else fully reads this, what are your thoughts on what I’d do, I’m all for constructive criticism on this idea,

I share the rest of your concerns, but not the one about the Timberliners. I was a skeptic as well, but after experiencing them on Wooden Warrior I am a fan. It will be interesting to see how they perform on a much larger ride, though.

The reason why I don't like the Timberliiners is their style, or should I say lack there of (in my opinion), to me, it's like they threw style out the window, GCI got it right with the Millennium Flyers (which is why that I'd possibly add them to Hades), which were based off of the old Century Flyer trains, I don't remember where I read that, and they look great, and in my eyes, look right on a wooden coaster, Timberliners on the other hand, don't, sure they may improve the ride, but they do it at the expense of style, But on a side note, did you read what I would do, because I'd like another opinion on this to see if it's good ideas or not, or a mix of both good and bad ideas And another thing that I'd possibly add BTW would be a B&M mega coaster that would either be over 200 ft tall or be like a B&M version of the praised Intamin mega lites and the GS spinning coaster, it would possibly be a dueling one like Wijas in Germany

I've never seen Timberliners or ridden a Gravity Group coaster. However, I've heard the Mt. Olympus poor management thing before, and I've heard that their previously brilliant wooden coasters are horrendously rough now. I completely agree with you regarding how crazy and stupid this is, and I am just praying that no one gets hurt and that the coaster is not ruined.

Cyclops is still good, the only really rough part is at the bottom of the infamous drop and Pegasus is good, but it's only a matter of time before they join Zeus and Hades in being pretty much un-rideable, but according to CC Hades review, people have been hurt, broken ribs, But i'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that this is a bad idea,

This is definitely looking like one helluva of a rollercoaster and very innovative. How often do we get to see these sort of maneuvers on a wooden rollercoaster!? Beyond riding it, I think just seeing it in person would be something special.

If I could get myself there, I'd most definitely be excited for this. However, my first choice if I could ship out and tour some parks next year would be Outlaw Run, and, a previously existing then upgraded coaster like this would be further down the list (behind Iron Rattler too because the terrain there makes me drool a bit).

I rode this rollercoaster several weeks ago and I’m saying that it’s 1 star out of 5! The ride was too rough that will send your blood veins throbbing with pain. The ride gives you neck sore and headaches!

You guys are so hard on this ride its called Hades for a reason and its amazing sure its rattely at the end but they re laid 90% of the track for a smoother ride. Its amazing I go there and six flags great America every year and when I’m at six flags all I can say to others is Hades kills every ride there expect for batman that’s one hell of a classic ride. But its metal that’s another story. If you can’t handle the heat get off of Hades